Biskupin – premedieval Polish setlement.

After half year of work Bartek H has finished his brick recreation of Biskupin. That long it took from first sketches and LDD project to the final MOC to be created. The build consists of 36000 elements and is 5×4 baseplates big, not counting wooden bridge sticking away.

Here is short history behind Biskupin:

The Biskupin settlement has been discovered by accident while draining marches in mid. 1930s.

The age of this particular settlement was estimated as old as VIII century b.c.. The settlement was established on a slightly wet island of over 2 hectares and consisted of ca. 106 oak and pine log-houses, of similar layout and measurement (appox. 8 x 10 m each), built in 13 straight rows. Each house

accommodated one family of 10–12 persons (in total over 1000 people). An open hearth was located in the centre of the house. Because of the damp, boggy ground the streets were covered with wooden planks.

The settlement was surrounded by a tall wooden palisade, set on a rampart made up of both wood boxes filled up with earth. The rampart surrounding this grid town was more than 450 m long.

The settlement was most probably consumed by the lake when the climate change, and thanks to that fact was well preserved to our times. For that, it is called the “Polish Pompeii”. Nowadays, a full-scale entrance gate, part of the rampart and two house rows were erected on the site.

Such settlements were called “grody” (“gród” in singular). They were build (in this or similar forms) on Slavic areas of nowadays Poland till the early medieval times, when location of dwelling shifted in favour of towns around or close to castles (first wooden, later on stone / masonry).

The settlement is accurate build from historic point of view. Of course there is a limitation towards the number of aisles (9 instead of 13) and houses (the longest rows had 10 huts, mine are 5-4 huts long). The one visible exception is the statue of Światowid (Svetovit, the pagan Slavic god of 4 faces), which stands on the main square of the village, while it would be better of in a chram (a temple) outside the settlement or amid a sacred grove.

As our historic settlers took up hunting, fishing, root and berry gathering, perhaps some early farming on the mainland, and crafts such as weaving, pottery, fur tanning – we have all those on the Lego counterpart. The minifigs sport custom made decals.